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November 05, 2013

Pumpkin Recipe Round Up 2013

I got a late start to my pumpkin baking this year, but once I opened my first can, I made sure to squeeze in as many pumpkin goodies as I could! I've heard people say before that they're going to turn into a pumpkin from eating too much of it, and now I understand how they feel...Not that I'm complaining - personally, I can't get enough of anything and everything pumpkin this year!

And instead of keeping all the goodies I've tried to myself, I thought I would post a round-up of the pumpkin recipes I've tried this season, similar to last year's post. Most of them were adapted from other blogs, so be sure to check out their sites too!

Pumpkin Stuffed Energy Balls

With all of the pumpkin recipes that I bookmark, there's never a shortage of ideas from other bloggers that I want to try. But the one pumpkin recipe of my own from this year were these pumpkin stuffed energy balls. With the "dough" made from raw nuts and dates, and a filling of pumpkin hummus, these made a healthy and tasty snack!

Pumpkin Pancakes

For breakfast a couple of weekends ago, I used some of my leftover pumpkin puree to make these vegan pumpkin pancakes from Daily Garnish. They turned out a bit thinner than my usual pancakes and took a while to make with my limited set of skillets (which is why I started making mini ones, seen on top in the photo), but they were worth the wait! They had a nice amount of pumpkin flavour and the pancakes themselves weren't very sweet, making them the perfect base for lots of maple syrup!

Pumpkin Coffee Smoothie

When I'm in the mood for a cold drink in the morning instead of hot coffee, I like to add instant coffee to a smoothie. This smoothie also had pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice to make it more appropriate for fall. I didn't really measure ingredients this time, but you can check out this post from last year for a recipe.

Pumpkin Banana Coffee Cake

One of my favourite pumpkin recipes that I've tried so far this year was this pumpkin banana breakfast cake from The Pancake Princess. The only changes I made were to use coconut oil instead of olive oil, chopped walnuts in the topping instead of ground, and I replaced the spices in the cake with 1.5 tsp pumpkin pie spice. I loved the texture of the cake, and I liked that it tasted light and not too sweet, so that you could eat it as a relatively healthy snack any time of day!

Mini Pumpkin Muffins

Another healthy baked good that I made with pumpkin were these mini vegan pumpkin muffins from Eating Bird Food. They were nice and fluffy and moist inside, despite having very little oil, and even though they looked a bit plain, I thought they still had lots of flavour!

Pumpkin Beer Bread with Pumpkin Butter

I've had a large bottle of this pumpkin beer sitting in my fridge for awhile, and since it was a relatively strong one, I decided to use some of it in a recipe rather than drinking the whole thing myself! I've been wanting to try making beer bread for awhile too, so when I saw this recipe for pumpkin beer bread on Gimme Some Oven, it was the perfect opportunity! With pumpkin puree, pumpkin spice, and pumpkin beer, this bread had a nice amount of pumpkin flavour, while still being more on the bread side than a sweet breakfast loaf cake. Unfortunately, my bread ended up with an unpleasant bitter aftertaste from using a dark, strong beer, so next time I would make this with a lighter pumpkin beer.

To cover up some of the bitter taste, I made a thick, spiced pumpkin butter to spread on it, which was the perfect combination! I only had a small amount of pumpkin puree left in my can, so I roughly followed a couple of recipes that I'd seen for pumpkin butter, just guessing on amounts of spices and sweetener. Luckily, pumpkin butter isn't very finicky so it still turned out great! For actual recipes, I would recommend looking at these ones from Oh She Glows and Hidden Fruits and Veggies (I used a less sweetener in mine though).

Pumpkin Granola

I've made pumpkin granola in the past and remembered loving it, so I wanted to make another batch this year. I followed this recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod, except I left out the brown sugar because I didn't want it to be too sweet, and I added some coconut flakes near the end of the baking time. This was nice and crunchy and it was good for both snacking and eating with yogurt!

Pumpkin Swirl Brownies

Last but not least were these vegan pumpkin swirl brownies from The Balanced Platter. I'm not usually one for chocolate treats, but these had a good balance of richer chocolate with lighter spiced pumpkin. They turned out more like a snack cake than brownies, and were definitely more on the healthy side than a decadent dessert, but I loved them more for those reasons! I need to work on my swirling skills (and learn not to flip the cake upside down onto a wire rack, leaving lines all over them), but I would definitely make these again!

Of course, not all of the pumpkin treats that I've enjoyed this year have come from my own kitchen. In addition to too many Starbucks' pumpkin spice lattes, my favourite storebought treats recently have been a pumpkin pie square, a pumpkin butter tart, and classic pumpkin pie (all pictured above).

Even though it's now November and holiday drinks and treats have made their way into every store and cafe, I still plan on enjoying pumpkin for as long as I can!